


Silver to Bind

by distractedKat



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Community: yj_anon_meme, Fae & Fairies, I Don't Even Know, Other, Unseelie Court, should-be-crack-but-isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-01
Updated: 2011-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-26 17:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractedKat/pseuds/distractedKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(yj_anon_meme prompt minifill</p><p>Full prompt: <a href="http://yj-anon-meme.livejournal.com/1801.html?thread=4352009#t4352009"> Not all aspects used. </a> (Actually almost NO aspects used. I got like a word into the prompt and went A-HA. Poor OP...)</p><p>Tl;dr prompt: Robin is a faerie. The rest of the team doesn't know <strike>until now</strike>.</p><p> </p><p>Batman and Robin have a brief discussion on how to keep the status quo going for as long as they can, which means keeping the League from wondering and keeping the Court from looking too close.</p><p>The answer, of course, is silver.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silver to Bind

“My glamours are fading.”

Batman looked up from his analysis of Joker’s latest laughing gas formula, turning his chair until he could see his young charge.

Robin stood in the middle of the cave, fully geared except for his mask, smiling faintly at a bat that was hanging contentedly from the fingers of his right hand. He tickled the small creature’s soft belly fur, smile growing when it stretched out a wing to grasp his wrist. “Not always,” he added without lifting his gaze to his mentor’s. “Not even often. I can maintain them under most circumstances, but sometimes—”

“Can you be more specific?” Batman interrupted, already calculating. “When, exactly, do they fade?”

“I’m sure you can guess.”

Batman sighed heavily thought his nose, leaning back in his seat. “Interacting with other types of magic.”

“Mmm.” Robin cuddled the bat close, finally turning so their gazes could lock. His eyes were bluer than the hottest fire, gleaming and unnaturally bright, with catslit pupils blown wide in the darkness. Unshielded, otherworldly, more startling than the graceful point of his ears or the slim fragility of his bones.

The surest brand of his heritage.

“We need a new plan,” the boy pointed out.

Batman spread his hands. “I’m open to suggestions. My experience with subduing faerie magic is somewhat limited, and I can’t contact any of the members of the League who might be able to help.”

Robin lifted his hands so the bat could fly back to its roost. “Bind me,” he said, as casually as if he had asked what Alfred’s plans for dinner were.

Batman was less serene. _“What?”_

“It doesn’t have to hurt,” Robin promised, closing the distance between them, so light on his feet that it was nearly a dance. He leaned against Batman’s chair, offering him a smile. “You don’t have to use iron. Silver bracelets, maybe, or a ring of silver around my throat—”

“You’re not an _animal_ , Dick.” Batman scowled at him. “I won’t— _collar_ you.”

“No?” Dick tilted his head coyly. “So you’ll let my glamours shatter, then. You’ll let them all find out.”

Batman’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t have a rebuttal.

“I don’t see why you should be so squeamish about this,” Robin added, twisting until he was perched on the arm of Batman’s seat. “You didn’t have any trouble taking me in the first place. This is necessary if we don’t want to be caught. Or would you prefer to have the Unseelie Court on your doorstep?”

“No.” Batman lifted a hand to touch the fringe of Robin’s dark hair. “They would take you.”

Robin pressed against Bruce’s hand until it obliged his demand by cupping his cheek. “Then make the bindings. We’ll think of something to explain them. It won’t hurt—and I’ll get to stay.”

“How long will you keep hiding here?” Batman asked, just a touch wistfully.

They both heard what he wasn’t saying: _How long can I keep you?_

Robin smiled again, a sharp expression filled with promise. “When at last they find this place,” he murmured, blue eyes gleaming, “and break through my wards, and drag me screaming back to the Court…” He wrapped one slender hand around Bruce’s wrist, gripping with enough strength to leave a delicate ring of bruises. “I will take you with me, and make you into a knight darker than even you can dream.

“Until then, our promise stands. Guard this city and this above-world. Keep your youth and strength. I will stay with you, always by your side. For however long forever lasts.”

Batman shut his eyes and tipped his forehead against the fae child’s, torn between distress and relief.

They designed the bracelets together. Dick wore two, one around either wrist, bright and beautiful and covered in the delicate faerie script used for binding magic.

Bruce wore one, tarnished and heavy, engraved with the promise they had made the day Batman took the boy from his Court.

When people asked, they said it was a family thing.

It wasn’t, precisely, a lie.


End file.
